With statewide revenue losses for charity running $15,000 a day, a coalition of Ohio veterans
posts and fraternal lodges is considering going to court over the state’s decision to shut down
their electronic-raffle gaming machines.

Attorney General Mike DeWine, who ordered the plug pulled on what he says amount to illegal slot
machines, said yesterday that he would welcome a lawsuit.

“If they believe our understanding and interpretation of the law is incorrect, they have every
right to go to court,” DeWine said. “We are in the unenviable position, from my point of view, of
having to enforce the law.”

DeWine announced on Dec. 6 that his office would begin cracking down on posts and lodges that
were operating illegal raffle machines, and that it might begin charging violators criminally or
civilly. DeWine said the raffle machines are the same as illegal slot machines under Ohio law.

The veterans organizations and Eagles, Moose and Elks lodges that make up the Ohio Veterans and
Fraternal Charitable Coalition stopped using the machines a week ago. But the group subsequently
hired attorney Andrew Douglas, a former Ohio Supreme Court justice, to represent it in the
matter.

DeWine’s office confirmed that Douglas met with the attorney general’s staff on Friday. No
details of the meeting were available.

Bill Seagraves, head of the coalition, said that because of the shutdown, the organizations are
collectively missing out on $15,000 a day in revenue that would otherwise go to charity.

The coalition had pinned its hopes on state House Bill 325, which proposed legalizing the
existing machines by placing them under control of the charitable-gaming section of the attorney
general’s office. However, no action was taken in the legislature, which has adjourned for the
year.

DeWine said yesterday that his office has been “working with the veterans to craft legislation
we think is acceptable and we would find constitutional. We feel bad, frankly, that the veterans’
current method is illegal, but it is. We’ve been telling them that for two years. We allowed them
to continue, but we didn’t ever tell them they were legal.”

The charitable coalition has spurned an offer by the Ohio Lottery Commission to install 1,200
state-of-the-art electronic games for free. Seagraves said coalition members think the lottery’s
deal would provide too little money for charity and too much to Intralot Inc., the Greek company
that has the lottery’s primary gaming contract.